Joo Heng - Simply Delicious

Joo Heng Restaurant

360 Joo Chiat Road

Tel: 6345-1503

Whilst I haven’t been blogging, I am still eating, no real excuse except for the fact that I have been little lazy.

I recently discovered this placed called Joo Heng along Joo Chiat Road, although discovered isn’t exactly the best word to use since this place has been around for yonks. Since finding it, I’ve found the food rather irresistible. I’ve been back there twice within a month and I’ve tried to spread the good news only to find out that a foodie friend of mine has been unintentionally harbouring this secret place from me, he was exposed when I tried to tell him the good news about it only to be told, “oh yeah, that’s my childhood place, I used to eat lunch there so often that the uncle recognises me, I grew fat on that food!”

The food here is what I would call local home styled cuisine -- cze char lah! It is simple straight up tasty food. Whatever we have tried was good and judging from the sample and the good smelling plates of food that whizzed passed me I think it would almost be safe to say that everything on the menu is good.

Whilst it has a selection of shark’s fin dishes, what I remembered most was something that it rather rare on menus nowadays, their poached you yi and te gua dish, gently cooked it was cooked just right and then covered with sauce and served with a garnish of spring onions and ginger, very yummy and I wished more places served this. Their unpretentious and homely style also translates into many other delicious nostalgic dishes that we tried such as prawn-pasted chicken, sweet potato leaves fried with sambal belachan, special tofu, steamed song he fish head and steamed baby squid, all simply put together but all very delicious.

When you dine here you don’t need wisdom for a good meal. Reasonable prices and scrumptious food prevail, so order away.

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant

The Seafood Paradise Restaurant
91 Defu Lane
10 Swee Hin Building
Tel: 6487-2429

I think I just discovered another weekend hideout for Singaporeans. Located deep in Defu industrial park is this 200+ seater restaurant called Seafood Paradise…the seafood phenomenon. The older sibling of Taste Paradise, this place has found success with its live seafood and its signature creamy butter crab, which sauce is best mopped up with deep fried man tous… in other words, it got Singaporeans excited about their rendition of bread and butter.


Creamy butter crab

This was my first visit to Seafood Paradise and it was introduced by my cousins. My brother on the other hand had been there with my cousins, and his first reaction upon his return visit was, “it was a lot crummier the last time we came here!” In fact, even the menus have had an upgrade from a laminated piece of paper to a proper full colour print menu.

There is an air-conditioned section of the restaurant, but most dine in the alfresco area under the stars along a wall lined with palmed trees. The waiting time for a table will be brisk, an estimate of 15 minutes, but once you are seated, brace yourself to wait for your food. We were prepared for a half hour wait, which the waitress confirmed with us when asked, but the actual wait was closer to 45 minutes, so be prepared to wait. During this time, you should either engage in conversations about politics, weather or whatever that will keep you occupied or you visit live fishes, frogs, crabs, prawns and lobster that are in the tank on death row. To have a good indication of when your food is coming, observe the tables next to you—especially if they had placed their orders before yours, once they have been served, your table should be served in the next 10 or so minutes.

As for the food, it was good value for money, but if you asked me about the whole experience, I don’t think the food was worth all that waiting and the anticipation skewed my judgment. The crab signature dishes such of creamy butter crab was too rich and sweet for me, but it comes with a sprinkling of deep fried crab roe that is wonderful to enjoy with the fried man tou, but I couldn’t stomach a lot of it without feeling je-lat. The crab in superior broth was good. Served with vermicelli, which does a doubly good job in absorbing flavours and giving royal appearance as if it were covered with shark’s fins. The broth was tasty and was initially met with glee but was a little overpowering after five spoonfuls. My favourite dish of that meal was its homemade beancurd in mini wok and pork floss, was soft and silky smooth and heightened by the pork floss on it. The other dishes that we had were ok, but nothing to write home about. All in all, it was ok, I might come back, but I will first have to figure out how to beat the crowd.



*See the whole set here.